Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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Question 493: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will include a school (details supplied) in County Kilkenny under the category of unclusterable disadvantaged status; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [7317/07]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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DEIS (Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools), the action plan for educational inclusion, provides for a standardised system for identifying levels of disadvantage and a new integrated School Support Programme. DEIS will bring together, and build upon, a number of existing interventions in schools with a concentrated level of disadvantage.

As a result of the identification and review process, 873 schools have been included under the DEIS action plan. These comprise 670 primary schools and 203 second-level schools. While the school to which the Deputy refers has not been identified for inclusion in DEIS, it has retained the additional financial resources it had under pre-existing schemes for addressing disadvantage for the current school year. This includes financial support as an alternative to teacher/coordinator support which is provided for schools that are isolated from other similar schools and hence cannot be clustered. Accordingly an unclusterable grant was lodged to the school's bank account on 17 November 2006.

Schools which have not qualified for inclusion in DEIS, and which are receiving additional resources under pre-existing schemes for addressing disadvantage, can be assured that they will continue to get support to enable them to maintain services for their disadvantaged pupils.